)a 
THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II 
§ 2. RELATION OF THE GOVERNOR TO A DEFEATED 
MINISTRY 
It is of course clear that a Ministry which has been defeated 
and is simply waiting to leave office, unless the country 
returns it to power, cannot be allowed to exercise the more 
important functions of Government. If they tried to do so, 
it would be the duty of the Governor to restrain them, and 
if need be to dismiss. The instances in which this principle 
has been laid down are numerous: for example, Sir John 
Young, in reporting in 1865 as to his refusal to create extra 
members of the Upper House of New South Wales at the 
request of his Ministry, noted the fact that as they had no 
real support in the country and were on the verge of a defeat 
he had declined their application, for that among other 
reasons.! Sir Hercules Robinson, in granting the request of 
Sir G. Grey for a dissolution in New Zealand in 1879, ex- 
pressly laid stress on the fact that the Ministry must confine 
its activities to mere routine matters until it had appealed 
successfully to the people? In 1877 the Marquess of 
Normanby declined to accept the advice of his ministers to 
add a member to the Legislative Council of New Zealand 
while a vote of censure was pending against them in the 
Lower House, and though on the victory of the Government 
in the debate he at once made the appointment, the protests 
of the Government were not accepted as valid by the 
Secretary of State to whom the incident was reported. 
On the other hand, Lord Onslow, in 1891, on the defeat of 
the New Zealand Ministry, was nevertheless willing to create 
a limited number of members of the Upper House at the 
request of the Ministry. They desired to create eleven new 
members, and insisted that he must accept their advice or 
resignation. He, however, by negotiations induced them to 
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 198, 1893-4, pp. 75 seq. 
* New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1879, A. 1 and 2, But in 1869 the Governor 
made appointments to the Council, both during and after a debate on 
a vole of no confidence, which was carried. 
8 New Zealand Gazelte, June 21, 1878.